The assertion that players don’t get “paid” is false. They get paid handsomely, just not with a bi-weekly check. Here are just some of the benefits paid to college athletes:
– Scholarship athletes get free tuition at some of the best universities in the land, which alone can be worth well over 50k per year. They also have increased chances of getting admitted to those universities.
– For the major sports, they get access to high-paying jobs where they can potentially play a game for a living. The market for these jobs is almost exclusively available to them.
– Unlike other students, student athletes get free access to: (1) top-notch coaches and trainers; (2) some of the best training and recovery facilities in the country; (3) free tutoring; and (4) other leisure facilities.
– They also get promotional, name-recognition, and indirect branding benefits. There is a cachet that goes with being a college athlete that can help you land any job. There are also some sports-related jobs (e.g., broadcasting, coaching, training) that athletes have a much better shot at.
If you had to pay for all of those benefits or their equivalents at market price (e.g., tuition, personal sports training, academic training, college prep equivalent, facilities access, personal branding), I would expect the price to be well in excess of 100k per year per student. The fact of the matter is that the football and basketball revenue goes directly into these benefits (e.g., paying for coaches, facilities, etc.) and it goes into supporting the other sports.
Also, pointing to the coaches’ salaries is a red herring. First, the coaches are a benefit to the players, training and preparing them for the next level and giving them exposure and access to the decision makers in sports. (Think of how much people pay out of their own pockets for their kids to get good private coaching.) Second, even the best coaches make a few million dollars a year, and that is the highest paid person on the staff. All of the rest of the revenue is funneled back into the school, the other sports, and the athletes themselves.
If you start requiring payment, something will suffer, and that something will be other sports, and other universities that can no longer afford to field a team and compete.
For fans of college sports, at least as we currently know them, we better hope the NCAA has a good lawyer.
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